Business, not politics, will drive potential Expos return: Jonah Keri

Baseball writer Jonah Keri at home with his children Ellis and Thalia.

Photograph by: Lisa Turner
, Montreal Gazette

Five years ago, even while writing a book about the Montreal Expos’ history, Jonah Keri thought there was no chance a Major League Baseball team would return to the city.

Today, the Montreal author and journalist has tempered his attitude — to a degree. But unlike others, who believe it’s only a matter of time until the inevitable occurs, Keri has taken a more rational approach.

“If you has asked me in 2012 is it going to happen, I’d have said there was a zero per cent chance. Then it was five or 10 per cent. It’s not that I’m Pollyanna about it or super convinced, but I think there’s some chance,” he said. “I literally thought there was no chance five or six years ago.”

Keri, 43, a journalist for Sports Illustrated and CBS Sports, has returned to the city this week and will deliver a lecture Thursday at 7 p.m. at Concordia University about sports journalism, baseball and the Expos. Keri graduated from the school in 1997 with a B.A. in journalism before pursuing a career in the U.S.

Keri, a former Montreal Gazette summer intern, has already had a varied and vast career, having covered business and writing about the stock market for various publications, and is the author of two New York Times bestsellers about the Expos and baseball.

While he laments the recent provincial government announcement that at least another $200 million will be poured into the Olympic Stadium to replace its roof, Keri doesn’t believe there’s any correlation to the ouster of Montreal mayor Denis Coderre and the possible return of big-league baseball.

Coderre never was going to be the driving force, Keri said, acting instead as a cheerleader. Instead, it’s Bell Media, in conjunction with Montreal businessmen Stephen Bronfman and Mitch Garber, who will serve as the catalysts.

“Teams happen because someone writes a cheque,” Keri explained. “This is going to be a $2-billion enterprise between the new stadium and expansion or relocation. Coderre can’t write that cheque. The premier (Philippe Couillard) … (Canadian Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau … nobody can. That has to be private enterprise.”

Despite his love of the game, combined with his hope a team returns, Keri said he doesn’t endorse the use of public money for private enterprise. In other words, he doesn’t believe mayor-elect Valérie Plante is trying to scuttle the potential return simply because she’s calling for a public debate. While she was campaigning, Plante said no public money would go toward a new downtown stadium unless Montreal voters acquiesce.

“It sounds like the new mayor just wants public accountability,” said Keri, who lives in Denver. “Let’s make sure we’re doing this responsibly. I have no problem with that; it’s prudent. You need to show evidence this is going to work. Putting it in the hands of the populace doesn’t seem unreasonable.

“If the new mayor decides this is fiscally prudent and the team can succeed, how is that harmful?”

Born in Côte-St-Luc before his family moved to St-Laurent, Keri’s first introduction to the Expos came through his grandfathers, huge baseball fans. When he was old enough to ride the métro and attend games on his own, a teenage Keri and his friends would often sit in the right-field bleachers 35 to 40 times each season. Keri developed an affinity for Tim Raines, Canadian Larry Walker and late pitcher Pascual Perez, the latter due to his histrionics.

“We never thought the Expos were remote. We didn’t put them on a pedestal the same way. They were so accessible,” Keri said. “You had to be self-deprecating to be an Expo. You could be a great player, but you couldn’t take yourself too seriously.”

Although he moved out of Montreal upon graduating, Keri habitually returned to the city to attend the Expos’ final game each season — except 2004, when the team played the final game in franchise history before relocating to Washington, D.C. Keri was living in Los Angeles by that time and, once news broke the franchise would be transferred, it was too late.

“I understood the ramifications. It was like a cancer patient that wasn’t going to last,” Keri said. “It had to end. They had to get a real owner, which they didn’t have since (Charles) Bronfman. I wasn’t as sad as I could have been or other people were. By then, I was old enough and recognized this wasn’t going to work.”

Keri’s being featured as part of Concordia’s 2017 Reader’s Digest annual public lecture in journalism. His message to any aspiring journalist is: be realistic, flexible and diverse.

“Go where the jobs are and figure it out as you go,” he said. “Accept the fact you’re going to hustle, eat a lot of baloney and cereal for the first two years. I don’t say there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”

Keri’s lecture will be at the D.B. Clarke Theatre at 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W. Admission is free, but seats must be reserved. For information, phone 514-848-2424 (ext. 4397) or 888-777-3330.

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